How to get people to your Business Event

After you have sat down with a cup of coffee and thought of various ideas and mapped out story boards of how you envision your next business event. It’s important to consider how you can get people to attend your event. This is still a challenge faced by too many B2B marketers. You need to consider your strategy and budget then work out what channels will really ensure you attract the right target market to your event.

Direct marketing – email

Email can bring a high volume of awareness and people to your event. Firstly you want to consider who you’re emailing whether it’s existing clients, new business prospects, or completely fresh data, as your email copy will need to be tailored accordingly. Consider buying new data if you want a high foot fall to your event. Clearly define your target market for your business event so you can use the relevant data. If your event is more private then stick to just emailing clients and new business prospects and don’t forget to do a follow up email, with billions of emails sent around the UK a day, be sure yours isn’t missed!

Website

A page on your website can bring a lot of brand awareness and word of mouth to your event. Web traffic coming through to your site every day should be utilised and you want to ensure your advertising your event either on your homepage or a blog on your newsfeed specifying dates, times and further information. If your event is a public event then add a sign up form – the more the merrier!

Paid social advertising

Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn paid advertising can also bring many new leads to your event. Advertising through your social channels can bring lots of new business prospects whilst attracting the right target market. Many of the social channels run paid ad solutions that allow you to bid based on demographics. Traditional paid search as Google Adwords is a viable source of promotion; just make sure you set up relevant key word searches suitable to your business event.

Social media

Whether your business event is an exhibition, conference, webinar or a public/private event you want to consider your social media. A good starting point would be creating your own #hashtag. Make sure it’s unique and consistent throughout your social media to build a community and raise awareness to your event. You can include the hashtag on your website and press releases in order for bloggers and influencers to talk about the event to their communities, creating word of mouth. A hashtag becomes very helpful throughout and after the event to see what guests were tweeting for your event analysis! You want to ensure you’re also posting information about your event through Facebook and LinkedIn so your followers can keep up to date. Don’t just post once and move on the lifespan of a social status can be very short lived, so update often and make sure it sounds exciting and interesting enough to attract their attention.

MarketMakers B2B Winter Event at The Ritz London

Telemarketing

Telemarketers are also a really effective marketing channel. Once you have sent your emails or even direct mail you can get your diallers to do a follow up call and pitch to your new business prospects or fresh data to bring new leads to your event. If you’re inviting existing clients/customers to an event then ensure your telemarketers approach these calls in a more consultative manner.